High power 808 nm VCSEL arrays for pumping of compact pulsed high energy Nd:YAG lasers operating at 946 nm and 1064 nm for blue and UV light generation

High power 808 nm VCSEL arrays were developed to pump compact pulsed Nd:YAG lasers. A QCW side-pumped passively Q-switched Nd: YAG laser operating at 1064 nm produced linearly polarized 4 ns IR pulses with 4.7 mJ pulse energy. These pulses were externally frequency doubled and quadrupled resulting in 2.5 mJ pulse energy at 532 nm and 0.8 mJ at 266 nm respectively. A similar but actively Q-switched dual side-pumped Nd: YAG laser operating at the weaker quasi three-level 946 nm transition produced 12 mJ pulses that were efficiently frequency doubled resulting in 5.6 mJ blue pulses of 17 ns duration.